Worshipping Steve Jobs Can Lead to Your Failure as a Boss
Only rare genius compensates for deadly leadership sins
I cringe when I see some young, eager entrepreneur reading Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson.
Not because it isn’t a great book, it is. Not because Jobs isn’t a fascinating human being, he is. Not because they can’t gain insight into innovation, success, business, and even genius, they can.
It is because if they choose to act like Steve Jobs as a leader of people when they aren’t Steve Jobs, they’ll most certainly fail.
Isaacson sums up the point in this way:
“Let Jobs’ legacy not be his management style, but his passion for what he wanted to achieve.”
As someone who has led others for over 20 years in corporate, volunteer, and military settings, I have seen how Jobs’ leadership style can destroy those who emulate it and hurt those they lead.
Jobs was a visionary and a genius. He had many great strengths, including certain leadership traits, but some leadership traits he had would be devastating for the rest of us.
Here they are.
